Aruban police finish questioning teenagers

Published: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 at 11:00 p.m.

Aruban police returned home Tuesday after a week of questioning Alabama teenagers who accompanied Natalee Holloway on her graduation trip to the Caribbean island, where she disappeared eight months ago.

FBI spokesman Ray Zicarelli said a federal agent accompanied two investigators from Aruba during interviews in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi, where some of Holloway's former classmates from suburban Birmingham now attend college.

Holloway was among 125 Mountain Brook graduates and seven chaperones who visited the Dutch protectorate after graduation last year. She failed to show up for the return flight home on May 30, and the other students returned to Alabama before the investigation began.

Aruba's deputy police chief, Gerold Dompig, has said some of the teens who went on the trip had given conflicting information in media interviews and on the Internet and needed to be questioned in person.

Dutch teenager Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers were held for weeks as suspects but have since been released. Van der Sloot has admitted leaving a bar with Holloway, who was 18 at the time, but denied harming her.

<p>Aruban police returned home Tuesday after a week of questioning Alabama teenagers who accompanied Natalee Holloway on her graduation trip to the Caribbean island, where she disappeared eight months ago.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>FBI spokesman Ray Zicarelli said a federal agent accompanied two investigators from Aruba during interviews in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi, where some of Holloway's former classmates from suburban Birmingham now attend college.</p><p>Holloway was among 125 Mountain Brook graduates and seven chaperones who visited the Dutch protectorate after graduation last year. She failed to show up for the return flight home on May 30, and the other students returned to Alabama before the investigation began.</p><p>Aruba's deputy police chief, Gerold Dompig, has said some of the teens who went on the trip had given conflicting information in media interviews and on the Internet and needed to be questioned in person.</p><p>Dutch teenager Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers were held for weeks as suspects but have since been released. Van der Sloot has admitted leaving a bar with Holloway, who was 18 at the time, but denied harming her.</p>